1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for performing a game, an information storage medium, a game device, a data signal and a program for executing a game by generating images of a first character and a second character fighting on a device such as a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an action game or the like where a player character operated by a player fights another character, an effect expressed when an attack hits an opponent is an important element for arousing amusingness in the game. For example, in an action game with a martial arts theme, when a fighting technique of the player character hits the enemy character, rather than simply showing the reaction of the enemy character such as staggering backwards, a feeling of danger or forcefulness can be evoked from the game screen by adding visual effects such as blur effects or lightning flashes to express impacts or fragments flying through the air.
The blur effect for example, is a process for showing a display equivalent to the residual image or blur of the object image along the trail that the object has moved. A viewer therefore has the impression that the object is moving at high speed. A method is known in the related art for example for establishing a display position on the opposite side (rearward) that the character (object) is moving, placing multiple residual image data with shape identical to the character and then synthesizing so that the background image data becomes transparent (see for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (Unexamined) No. Tokukai-Hei 07-328228; corresponding to all claims).
If the blur effect can be applied to the enemy character receiving a blow in a martial arts game, showing the enemy character being blown away at high speed, then the blow or fighting technique of the player character can be expressed with overwhelming power.
Expressing these effects such as the blur effect in the related art involves applying an expression object externally to the object needing the effect. The range of expressing the effect is limited to the external side of the object that can normally be seen from the outside. However, the damage sustained from an attack is not limited to only externally viewable sections and may for example be internal damage such as a bone fracture or a rupture of internal organ. Internal damage more closely resembles the actual sensation of pain than does external damage, and the mental impression rendered to the player has a much greater effect. However, there is no effective method in action games for rendering effects that express such internal damage.
Methods are contrived for rendering effects expressing internal damage by showing them on the outer side of the object. However, these methods have the problem that internal damage cannot be distinguished from external damage. Furthermore, simple ways of showing internal damage have little visual impact and fail to absorb much viewer interest.